Place your T4L Rollout order now! 
With the release of the 2019 T4L Rollout Catalogue and your school's allocation email, it's time to finalise your school's devices order! Orders must be placed by THIS FRIDAY! If needed, contact your local T4L representative for advice on device selection to best suit your school's needs. The school's Technology Committee and/or Principal should determine and approve the devices and quantities ordered. Please understand that changing your school's T4L Rollout order after 20 September is not possible. Deliveries will commence in week 2 next term.
ICT PLUS+ improvements
Since we launched ICT PLUS+ in week 3, the updates and improvements have been coming thick and fast, based on user feedback. Release 2.3.4 went live last Friday, wrapping up multiple changes since the initial release, including:
- AMU Delegation - Staff who have been delegated access for multiple schools will see a school picker in ICT PLUS+
- Warranty Data Missing - About 5% of devices in Remedy do not have warranty information. ICT PLUS+ showed these as expired. The Warranty chart and column now show these as "warranty data missing", until Remedy is corrected.
- Age of Model - "Age of device" has been renamed to "age of model", as it reflects the model release date, not device purchase date. "Age of device" is now on our roadmap.
- Device usage - Please re-check the Usage chart and column. They now better reflect the last use of each device, for Microsoft devices. Google and Apple devices (but not iOS) are shown as “No data available" until further notice.
To keep up to date on new features and improvements as well as adding your own suggestions, join the ICT PLUS+ group on Yammer. Remember, ICT PLUS+ works best in Chrome.
eT4L Config Manager upgrade 
A scheduled after hours upgrade of Config Manager will affect all school eT4L servers from this afternoon through to Thursday morning this week. Please avoid any UDM software deployments or F12 device builds after 5pm each evening during the maintenance window. Click the image below for a larger view.
Apple Caching Server updates
At the end of 2016, Information Technology Directorate (ITD) released a standard method of deploying Apple Caching Servers (ACS) running from a Mac Mini computer. These servers ran on MacOS Sierra (10.12) and more than 800 were installed by schools across NSW. From term 2 this year, a new solution was developed to cater for the newest model of Mac Mini that Apple released. The new solution is built on MacOS Mojave (10.14) with centralised management via Jamf Pro. ITD is now remotely updating all of the old ACSs from Sierra to Mojave and enrolling them into the department’s Jamf Pro mobile device management system. It's occurring progressively across the state, with between 20 and 40 servers completed each night. The last servers should be updated by Friday 4 October. There is no outage associated with the update.
Dropbox client removal 
In our previous issue, we raised security concerns around the use of Dropbox in NSW public schools and corporate offices. The department's Information Security Unit advised that all DoE staff cease to use Dropbox with their DoE email account. In addition, all instances of the Dropbox client on department managed devices will be remotely unistalled from the week of 21 October 2019. This will not affect any data you may have stored on Dropbox cloud servers, but will stop local syncing. It is strongly recommended that staff take advantage of DoE-supported cloud storage:
- School based staff can choose either MS OneDrive / SharePoint or Google Drive / Team Drives
- Corporate staff should use OneDrive / SharePoint
Bridgit to be decommissioned
Bridgit, the department's legacy web conferencing software is often used for sharing screens across video conferences. Compatibility problems with Windows 10 and no vendor support for our version, makes the service unsustainable. As a result, ITD is planning to decommission Bridgit on Tuesday, 8 October. If you or your staff are still actively using the Bridgit service, it's time to learn how to use one of many alternatives:
Minecraft, PBL and Kingscliff PS 
We're always hearing of great ways schools have been using Minecraft Education Edition to engage and stimulate their students' learning. Recently, Mark Wallace, a stage 3 teacher at Kingsgcliff Public School on the north coast, shared some of the ideas his 5/6 class came up with. They'd been using MEE since early 2018 and linked it to their Alice in Wonderland text, recreating scenes from the book. During NAIDOC week, they recreated the poster, discussing what the different elements represented. But with their whole school being rebuilt next year, they are following the construction progress in Minecraft, while at the same time creating updated Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) resources. These will help students understand their changing school environment, keep safe and follow rules. Here is the second video in their series so far:
To make the video, Mark hosted the MEE world on his iPad and screen recorded to capture the scenes. They then edited using Wevideo. The students are exposed to a variety of technologies and worked together to produce the desired results. They are now identifying other ways that MEE can be used in class to support and reinforce their learning.
Headspace: FREE for school staff 
Download the Headspace app to your smartphone or tablet and learn to meditate whenever you want, wherever you are, in just a few minutes a day. Each day, it delivers guided meditation and mindfulness. Normal subscriptions are US$19 per month, but school teachers, administrators and support staff can get a full subscription for free. Once subscribed, you’ll have access to hundreds of guided meditations. Choose a bite-sized mini for when you’re short on time, or a single to add some extra mindfulness to your day. There are hundreds of sessions for everything from stress to sleep - all designed to help guide you on your meditation journey. Get your free school staff member subscription. The subscription link for Australian Schools is right at the BOTTOM of the page. You'll have to prove that you work in a school. It's easy to simply upload a screenshot of your employment history from SAP - Employee Self Service. Watch this video to see what Headspace is all about.
ICT Thought of the day 
Chrome is now eT4L Tier 1 
